For A Lost City And Love
by FalconWings14
Summary: Set after both movies. Rick's sister, Beth, finds the key, and the Medjai want it before it falls into the wrong hands. Rating for obsene expletives and 'mild peril'. Hee hee! PS. Mary Sue warning - I was young, I knew no better!
1. A Long Awaited Visit

**Ha ha! Something new for a change! I was getting so sick of the Buffy story. Anyway, on with this one.**

**Disclaimer: (boring, but important) I do not own any of the characters, apart from Beth O'Connell and Jimmy. The rest belong to the very brilliant people who wrote The Mummy, and The Mummy Returns. Sigh! Though I did not create Ardeth Bay, he will one day be mine, as will Legolas from LOTR and Doyle from Angel. I have a cunning plan...Ahem! Anyhoo, on with the introduction:**

**What would happen if Rick had a sister, and she was as much of a tear-away as he was? And what would happen if she stumbled across a lost artefact that could mean trouble for the world all over again? **

**By the way, if anyone can suggest a better way of spelling Eve, could they tell me? Anyhoo, Miss Elizabeth O'Connell (Mary sue - whether you like it or not!) has spent her life hunting ancient relics. She's kind of like a professional relic hunter (duh!). **

**By the way, if anyone actually reads this and reviews it, please don't attack me for my lack of knowledge of Ancient Egypt and other stuff, such as life in that time period. I can't help it if I wasn't alive back then. In fact, please don't attack me full stop, because anything that sucks I have already pointed out to myself a thousand times over.**

O.O.O.O.O

Jimmy looked at Beth in awe. He had spent all of his adult life looking for this relic, and here it was, in his very hands. How the hell did she find this?

"Well don't just stand there gawping, Jimmy." Beth clucked. "Tell me what the thing's worth!"

Jimmy smiled. It was really here, and Beth, sweet Beth, had brought it to him. If only she knew what this meant to him. He could finally stop searching. His smile broadened to an unnerving grin, until he threw his head back and laughed like a mad man. Beth stood there, unsure whether or not to call a doctor for her boss.

"Jimmy! What the hell is it?" she snapped.

Jimmy abruptly stopped laughing. His deep green eyes twinkled furiously with delight. He took Beth's hand in his and began to ramble on. "Beth, oh dear, sweet Beth. This thing is priceless. It holds the answers to so many questions. It could mean the end of my many years of toil. This, dear sweet Beth, is a key. Not just any key, but _the_ key, the key to all the Ancient Egyptian holy books, and the key to a lost city that will hold so many treasures and secrets! Beth, this is the key to Ahm Sher!" And with that he let go of her hand and danced around the room, convincing Beth even further that he had cracked. Especially because she remembered telling him about her brother, Rick, and what he did at Ahm Sher - most noticeably the whole city being destroyed by it's own booby trap. Why would he be so excited about a city that no longer exists?

* * *

Rick was sitting in his big cosy chair in the study of his rather large house. On a shelf before him a small obsidian statue of Anubis stared blankly in his direction. Rick closed his eyes and bathed in the peace and quiet while it lasted.

"Rick." Eve called, shattering the silence. Rick opened one eye.

"Ah! There you are!" Eve smiled as she walked into the study. She planted a kiss on her husband's forehead and knelt before him. "I've been thinking." she said. Rick opened the other eye cautiously. Usually, an 'I've been thinking' meant another trip to some far corner of the world, and possibly a mummy out to kill them all.

"Uh oh." he mumbled, sitting forward.

"You know that sister of yours that you mentioned once?"

"Beth. Yeah. What about her?"

"I think we should invite her round for a visit. I mean, I've never met her, and neither has Alex. And we both want to."

Rick groaned. Beth could bring something worse than a mummy out to kill them all.

"Eve, Beth isn't the visiting type." he sighed, easing himself out of his chair. No, Beth wasn't the visiting type. She was more the come-crashing-into-your-life-for-a-short-spell-and-land-you-in-a-whole-load-of-trouble kind of girl. Sometimes her recklessness scared even Rick, and that was a big deal. He didn't want her and her trouble anywhere near his family.

"Well, what if we visit her?" Eve persisted. She lowered the tone of her voice just enough to let Rick know she meant business.

"Impossible. She's in a different corner of the globe each week."

At this point Alex came scampering into the study after his mother.

"Dad! I really want to meet Aunt Beth." he pleaded as he tugged on Rick's shirt. Rick rolled his eyes, knowing he couldn't compete with both his wife _and_ his son.

"Alright! I'll send her a letter." he conceded, knowing full well that his sister would never reply. Hopefully when that happened Eve and Alex would give up and accept that Beth wasn't a social member of the family.

* * *

A week later, the letter was sent and Alex was waiting by the letterbox like a well-trained dog.

"If I hadn't posted that letter myself I wouldn't of thought it was sent." he whined. "She will reply, won't she dad?"

Rick frowned and ruffled Alex's hair. "Doesn't look like it. I tried to warn you."

Alex nodded and trudged away from the front door. "I know, but I just hoped I might have an aunt that might be a bit more exciting than Uncle Jonathon. There's only so much of his bachelor act I can take without yawning my socks off."

Rick laughed. Jonathon had been invited round in hope of taking Alex's mind off of the absent Beth, but his visit didn't seem to have worked. "Well, sorry about that, kid. I guess you're stuck with your mother's side of the family." Alex responded with a disheartened shrug, and with one last glance at the letterbox, he scurried upstairs to his room.

Rick settled down in his chair again and began reading his newspaper. Upstairs he could hear Jonathon begging Eve to let him 'borrow' a gold statue of Horus they had recently found. Thank God he was leaving again in a few days.

Suddenly, a booming knock could be heard at the front door. For a fleeting second, Rick thought it was Beth, but he soon shrugged off that idea. If Beth could never find the time to write, she certainly didn't have the time to travel all the way to England.

"I'll get it!" Rick hollered as he leaped towards the door. He had only opened it a crack when the man on the other side forced his way in and stood in the hallway with a look of desperate panic upon his dark face.

"The key! Where is the key?" Ardeth demanded. Rick rolled his eyes. Of course, Jonathon was so close to leaving, so naturally Ardeth Bay had to come along and stir up everyone's lives instead. Oh well, Rick thought, better him than Beth. Beth would usually come with the Mafia on her tail.

"The key is right where you left it in the ruins of Ahm Sher, unless someone has dug through the rubble and taken it somewhere." Rick calmly replied.

"But that is exactly what has happened. That old friend of yours with the balloon, I think his name was Izzy; he went back and retrieved the key. When we questioned him about it all he would say was that he had lost it in a card game to someone of the name O'Connell."

Rick quietly observed the Medjai as he thought about what he had told him. Izzy wasn't usually the petty type to dig through the desert just for some key. That was more like Jonathon. Sure, he was sore about losing the gold Spear of Osiris, but he knew that was beyond finding again. And besides, he wasn't exactly the type to enter into card games like that either. Something was wrong.

"Ardeth!" Alex cried as he stomped down the stairs in an excited rush. He didn't regard Ardeth's presense with suspision as his father did. Instead he saw adventure, and release from his intense boredom. It was only when he saw the grim look in Ardeth's eyes that he stopped and wondered what was threatening to destroy the world this time.

"Why are you so worked up about the key anyway?" Rick asked Ardeth. "All it does is open a few books and a no-longer-existing city."

Ardeth sighed. "That is as we thought. But now we have discovered that the key is the only way into a new lost city, called Nak Tahn, and concealed within it is another victim of the Hun Dai. This nameless man appears to have done no terrible thing, but was chosen by someone to be a human sacrifice, killed purely to be raised again and to bring about the apocalypse of this century. We know not of who did this, or why they were so determined to destroy the world, but we believe that a reincarnation of them is alive now and seeking the key so that they may fulfill the wishes of their previous life. This is why it is so important that we find the key and destroy it."

Rick and Alex stared at Ardeth. All hope of adventure within Alex had now changed to that of dread. All hope of a trouble-free year within Rick had now dwindled and died. They slowly digested the information.

"I'm sorry Ardeth," Rick said after a painfully long pause. "I don't have the key, and I don't know where it is. All I can say is that it must be another O'Connell."

Ardeth hung his head. He had been sure it would be here, that one of the O'Connell family had the key. It all just fitted, considering their history with Imhotep and how each time it had been them that had defeated him. Why shouldn't they be the ones that could help the Medjai with this mummy? However, it seemed that fate was not willing to guide him so easily this time. It would take a lot more searching to find the key than he had hoped.

"Hello!" Eve chirped when she saw Ardeth. She skipped down the stairs, followed by Jonathon, who looked a lot less happy to see Ardeth. "What's going on?" Rick and Ardeth exchanged weary looks, and began to explain everything.

Eve blinked. "Well, at least he hasn't been raised yet, whomever he is." she smiled.

"There's just the small matter of finding out which O'Connell Izzy lost the key to." Rick sighed. "It's a pretty common name, you know."

"Well, what about your sister?" Eve suggested, matter-of-factly.

"Beth?"

"Yes. I assume she still carries her maiden name."

Rick was taken aback. It was a possibility. An obvious possibility. Beth would have shown interest in the key, and no doubt cheated Izzy out of it in a card game. It made sense that she would have it, and Rick knew from the one time he met her employer that Jimmy was very interested in The Book Of The Dead. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that Beth was the mystery O'Connell.

"I guess it's a trip to New york to find out." he reluctantly smiled, and then went upstairs to pack, praying that Beth wasn't somewhere else already. If she had gone off to find something else, then who knows what could happen to her before Rick had a chance to follow her.

* * *

"So, what are we going to do with this key?" Beth asked.

"We're going to hold onto this key for a while and treasure the fact that we found it. Then we're going off to find a lost city and bring back some precious artifacts, which we'll sell to various museums, and then we'll be laughing." Jimmy replied. Beth nodded obediantly. She was up for finding Ahm Sher. She wasn't up for reminding him that they weren't going to find Ahm Sher, because it all got sucked into the ground. The thing she was looking forward to the most, however, was seeing Jimmy struggle with the long journeys across sweltering hot deserts and through sticky, humid jungles. Then he'd never complain about her slacking ever again.

"Are you sure we shouldn't visit my brother, just to check it's the real deal." she asked.

"It is the real deal! I know a precious artifact when I see one!" Jimmy snapped. Beth shrugged, used to his outbursts. She wondered if the money they made from the museums was going to be enough for her to leave Jimmy's employment and go relic hunting off her own back. That was her dream - to be free to find the things she wanted to find, and not have to come back to headquarters for a paycheck, and to hand over her finds to someone too lazy to find the things themselves. How she longed to be like her brother.

"Hello?" called a voice from downstairs.

"We've got a customer." said Beth. She went to go and see what they wanted.

"Get rid of them." Jimmy told her. Beth stared. "We're no longer taking any customers. All our attention must be focused on this key." Jimmy then turned his back on her to study the key further.

Beth shook her head in bemusment and darted down the rickety stairs to see off the potential client. When she got there she was surprised to see her brother and several other people gathered in the reception room.

"Sorry, I'm afraid we're no longer taking any outside custom." she said sarcastically to her brother.

"Hi Beth. This is Eve, my wife." Rick smiled, ignoring her sarcasm. Ardeth fidgeted with impatience. Rick gave him an It-has-to-be-done-they've-never-met kind of look. He continued. "This is Ardeth Bay, Chief of the Bay clan of the Medjai."

Beth smiled and nodded to each new person in turn. Eve gave her a welcoming smile, and she knew straight away why Rick had married her. She had a passion in her eyes. When she got to Ardeth, she gasped in amazement. Most of the Medjai she had met were usually old, ugly, and trying to kill her for trespassing. This one was young, handsome, and courteous. His dark piercing eyes regarded her with a look that made her shiver. His black curls hund loose around his shoulders the way Beth wished her blonde locks would. Even the protection tattoos on his face seemed to accent his chiselled cheekbones in some way. Then, Beth was reminded that he was a Medjai when she saw his swords half-hidden by his black robes. She coughed, and turned back to her brother.

"What brings you here?" she questioned. Her eyes kept sliding towards Ardeth.

"Did you win a key from a guy named Izzy in a card game?" Rick asked her coyly.

Beth's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Yes, but how did you know?"

"That doesn't really matter. What matters is that someone wants that key, is willing to kill for it, and once he has it he'll kill everybody."

Beth laughed. "Oh, I think I can handle them. Believe me, I've fended off half the Medjai army. I think I can cope with some lord-of-the-apocalypse-wannabe."

Ardeth frowned. She was boasting about defeating his people, confinced that they couldn't have stopped her if they wanted. This woman was not only arrogant, she was willing to sell the key to the highest bidder - he could tell. Not only that, he was attracted to her. He cursed himself for letting her pretty face and shapely curves distract him from what she was trying to do. He wasn't usually drawn to women like her; blondes were not his type. So what made her so different? If anything he should have been even less attracted to her because of her attitude towards the fate of the world. Yet, perhaps she wasn't aware of the full extent of her actions?

"I don't think you understand, Miss O'Connell." Ardeth said. "If that key were to fall into the wrong hands, then the world will be faced with a mummy that will bring with him the end of this earth and it's people. No doubt the person wanting to do this has a large following, more viscious and merciless than 'half the Medjai army'." A hint of venom was in his voice at this point. Beth showed no signs of backing down. Ardeth carried on. "They will find you, kill you, and take the key to a lost city where the mummy lies, unless the key is destroyed now. And if you don't hand over the key, I may have to kill you myself."

"Hey! I thought I told you to get rid of them!" Jimmy scowled as he came down the stairs. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Ardeth. Suddenly, his eyes went wide with defiance. His fingers closed around the key tighter than a vice. "The key stays with us, Medjai." he spat. "How do we know you're not the one that wants to destroy the world with this key?"

Ardeth's eyes burned with anger at the thought of being accused of such a thing. He drew his swords and held one against Jimmy's throat, ready to take his head off with a single twitch.

"Stop it!" Beth yelled. She put her hand on Ardeth's arm and gently pushed it down, lowering the sword from Jimmy's throat. He was surprisingly cooperative. "I understand the extremity of this situation, and I'm willing to meet you halfway." she whispered to Ardeth. "Though I have every faith in your intentions, I've had some bad experience with Medjai in the past, if you know what I mean, so I propose an arrangement." Ardeth nodded.

Rick and Jimmy stood, watching with equally suspisious expressions, though each was suspisious of a different person.

Jimmy knew Ardeth was going to twist Beth into handing over the key. She was weak like that. God, he would kill her if she did. That key was everything he had worked for, and he didn't want to let it go, especially not to some Medjai.

Rick knew Beth was going to twist Ardeth around her little finger, thinking this was all a tremendous game, the way she always did with men. God, he was going to kill Ardeth if he fell for it. This was serious, damn it!

Eve watched with a curiosity. If she was to believe what Rick had told her, Beth would be using her womanly charm to get what she wanted out of Ardeth - the key. If she was to believe her intuition, then Beth would actually be taking this seriously and making the arrangement to satisfy her boss. Which was it?

Outside, Jonathon and Alex sat impatiently, fed up with being left out all the time. They had heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed, and a woman shouting, but it had all died down now. They were so bored.

"Who do you think it was shouting?" Jonathon asked his nephew.

"It wasn't Mum." Alex replied. "It was an American accent."

"Ah, it must of been the famous Beth then." Jonathon sighed. After a long pause he spoke again. "She sounded pretty. Do you think she's single?"

Alex shook his head in despair.

O.O.O.O.O

**Sorry about my pathetic attempt at comic relief at the end there. I'm not very good at JonathonAlex conversation. I can't quite get their characters right, so I shall have to leave them out for a great deal of the story. Soz.**

**If you've read this, you are now legally obligated to review it. Well, not quite, but if you don't I'll be upset. I'll also be upset if you flame too, but that can't be helped. There are mean people in this world. Anyhoo, please tell me what you think, because it will help me when I continue writing this, as my creative juices are well known for a lack of flowing at the most awkward of times.**


	2. The Cracks Begin To Show

**Hello faithful reading people! I am back for chapter 2 of this story, which started out well and unfortunately decided to attack me with it's mallet of writer's block. I did, however, overcome said mallet weilding story, and so come forth chapter 2! (chapter 2 steps forward nervously, not sure why it has been personified.) Ignore my insane ramblings, I just ate a lot of sherbet! Mwahaha, see the dancing bananas!**

**Ahem, review replies:**

**mrsblonde1503: thank you nice non-flaming person. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you. Ah, it's so nice when a complete stranger says your work is good.**

**Disclaimer: You know who wrote the Mummy films, so you know who owns all the characters in this except for Beth O'Connell and Jimmy. Don't rub it in andmake me get upset about my lack of ownership of Ardeth.****

* * *

**

"It's a perfectly reasonable deal." Beth huffed.

"I don't care. It's a deal with a Medjai, and reasonable or not, that makes it a bad deal!" Jimmy snapped back at her. They were sitting opposite eachother on a train, gradually making their way to Cairo. Beth couldn't see why Jimmy was so upset.

"What have you got against the Medjai Jimmy?" she demanded. "I'm the only one of us to have ever encountered them, and even I'm not so against them as you are."

"It's just...the things you told me." Jimmy sniffed. "They sound like their always beying for the blood of folk like us."

Beth laughed at her boss. There were times when he was such an ass that he all but grew long ears and a tail. Now was definatley one of those times.

"Good evening, don't mean to interrupt." Rick smiled as he sat down next to Beth. Jimmy scowled at him. He seemed to be hostile towards everyone being on this trip except himself.

"How's everyone doing?" Beth asked him.

"Oh, great. Eve and Alex are looking through some old, dusty book. Jonathon's dealing cards a couple of carriages down, and Ardeth is pacing the halls, muttering to himself about 'the insolence of that woman.', or something like that." Rick grinned. He found Ardeth and Beth's clashing personalities to be rather funny. He had a bet with himself to see which one would crack first, and he bet it would be Ardeth.

"You're happy with this, are you Rick?" Jimmy asked him. "I mean, you're one of us. You know what it is to be on an archealogical dig, find something, and then be faced with the prospect of handing it over to some son of a diminshing bloodline, all because 'the world's at stake?" His eyes were wide, and Beth swore his left eyebrow was twitching slightly. He was really hung up about this damn key.

Rick seemed slightly unnerved by Jimmy. He glanced at Beth and she just shrugged. Didn't this guy get it? "Look, Jimmy. I've seen the dangers we're facing. I know what that key is capable of, and what people are capable of doing to get it. Not only that, I trust Ardeth with my life and the lives of my family, let alone the fate of the world. He isn't just telling ghost stories, Jimmy. Everything he says is the truth. In fact, I swear Ardeth is physically incapable of lying."

The carriage door slid open and Eve stepped through. She smiled and sat down next to Jimmy, then turned directly to Beth. "Okay, I'm confused. Where exactly are we going and why?"

"We're going to go with Ardeth to the lost city of Nak Tahn, and if, when we get there, there actually is a mummy and Jimmy gets actual firsthand proof of that, then we hand over the key. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to give Ardeth the key and be done with it, but Jimmy here is so obsessed, I wasn't able to. At least this way we all get a small holiday, and some time to get to know eachother."

Eve smirked. She knew what it was like to be caught between Ardeth and an equally stubborn man. She had to congratulate Beth on her diplomatic skills. Ardeth was not the easiest man to reason with, and Jimmy came across as even worse. She wondered how her sister-in-law could stand to work for someone like that.

* * *

Ardeth stood in front of a window and looked out as the world outside whizzed past. He couldn't believe he had just agreed to lead two ruthless relic hunters, and a treasure hunter like Jonathon, to Nak Tahn. It was asking for trouble; who knows what they could unleash in their quest for treasure? He would have liked to have just killed them and retrieved the key, but he did not wish to upset Rick by killing his sister and her employer, no matter how much they annoyed him. Besides, the woman was almost too beautiful to kill. 

"There you are, Ardeth old boy!" called Jonathon with his pockets looking slightly heavier than before. "You couldn't take a look at this for me, could you." He held out a small scarab, made out of Egyptian blue gold. It looked very expensive...and familiar.

"That looks very much like the scarab that you came across in Hamanuptra." Ardeth smirked. Jonathon's face dropped.

"Ah." he mumbled, suddenly opening the nearest carriage door and discarding the scarab. Painful memories flickered across his panic-stricken eyes. Ardeth chuckled and turned back to the window.

"It's not funny. That could have attacked me at any second, you know." Jonathon whimpered.

Ardeth sighed."And it would have been your fault for being addicted to treasure, my friend. You never know what is a trap and what is cursed." Jonathon coughed and headed off to the O'Connell's carriage, obviously tired of the conversation. Treasure was not a thing to slander in Jonathon's presense. Ardeth didn't care.

* * *

Beth stepped out into the corridor, trying to escape from her companions. Rick and Jimmy had just gotten into a rather heated row about the ethics of archeology, and she had left them as Jimmy was explaining the rule of 'finders keepers'. This trip was going to do her head in. 

"You too could not stand the bickering?" Ardeth asked. Beth jumped. She hadn't seen him there.

"Ardeth, you scared me!" she gasped. He smiled a warm smile Beth hadn't seen before. It caught her off guard; she was falling for this guy a lot faster than she would have liked.

Ardeth didn't know why he was smiling. There was something about Beth that made him want to smile, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out what. Again, he silently seethed at his weakness, appalled by his feelings for Beth. When he was around her, his sense of duty shrivelled to no more than a nagging memory, and it made him so angry that such a thing could happen. He was a Medjai, a warrior of God, a protector of the people, and one annoying woman was distracting him from all the things he had been brought up to never forget. He had to distance himself from her as soon as possible.

"I'm taking a big risk you know." Ardeth sighed after a long pause. Beth nodded in understanding.

"I'm leading a family known for encounters with mummies and two unknown treasure hunters to a secret lost city that must remain a secret in case the wrong person finds out where it is." he continued.

"I'm sorry you have to take that risk."

Ardeth turned to face Beth. Concern swamped his beautifully dark eyes. "I trust your family. I even trust you, despite what your brother may say. I do not trust Jimmy."

"Not a lot of people do." Beth sighed. She wasn't even sure that she did at the moment. She wished there was some way she could just let Ardeth have the key and take all this weight off everyone's shoulders.

"Do you trust me?" Ardeth asked her.

"More than my own father." Beth replied without thinking. She giggled when she realised that was true.

"Do you trust I would destroy the key within a minute of possessing it?"

"Of course."

"Then give me the key now. As soon as we get to Cairo I can disappear with it and Jimmy never need know."

"I can't. Jimmy has the key, and he won't let it out of his sight for dust."

"Will you try?" Ardeth asked. He was on the verge of begging. How could Beth say no?

"Just for you, Medjai." Beth giggled, patting him playfully on the arm. Then she disappeared to ask Jimmy really nicely for the key.

* * *

"No way! No one touches this but me!" Jimmy hugged the key to his chest like the world would end if he didn't. 

"Oh come on Jimmy, I just want to hold it for an hour or two! I was the one that found it, and I haven't had a moment to enjoy it!" Beth pleaded. She was on her knees before him, her blue eyes brimming over with desperation. She even had a few buttons undone on her shirt for good measure.

"No! I know why you want it! That Medjai tricked you and now you just want to steal it from me!" Jimmy hollered. Beth hesitated for just one second, shocked that he would guess her game that quickly. That second of hesitation was all Jimmy needed.

"I'm right, aren't I? He played with your mind, you stupid bitch! You let him twist you around his little finger and now you've turned against me! I knew this would happen! I knew you would give in just like that! I knew it!"

Beth promptly slapped Jimmy really hard across his mousy face which was now crimson from ranting. What the hell was wrong with him? He had no right to call her a stupid bitch, and she was not going to let him get away with it.

"How dare you Jimmy!" she shouted. "I had no intention of stealing the key from you. If anyone's turned against anyone, you've turned against me! how dare you accuse me of betraying you after all these years!" She knew she was lying slightly, but she didn't care. She wanted to make him feel bad, and embarrass him infront of Rick, Eve and Jonathon, who were sitting there rather awkwardly, unsure what to do.

"I...I'm sorry Beth." he stammered, stupefied by the slap. "I didn't mean to go off the handle like that." Beth noticed his grip on the key still hadn't loosened. She wasn't going to get it off of him.

"You should be sorry Jimmy." she said, then slunk out of the carriage to see Ardeth again.

* * *

"How did it go with Jimmy?" Ardeth asked Beth, a little too un-convincingly. 

"You heard; don't pretend you didn't." Beth sighed.

"So there's no slight possibilty that..."

"Nope, no dice." Beth interrupted. Ardeth ran his hands through his ebony curls nervously.

"I guess we go all the way to Nak Tahn, then."

"Yep."

"Wonderful."

* * *

**You like? You find this chapter pointless? Oh well, I tried my hardest. I was just trying to emphasise Beth's sympathy for Ardeth, and Jimmy's total assholeness (yes, I know that's not a real word). **

**Review this and i shall give you a cookie, and you will have the pleasure of knowing you made me smile. As usual, no flaming. Flaming makes me sad and just repeats everything i say to myself when I get writers block (which is like, all the time!).**

**I leave you with this smallword of comfort: Niggle!**


	3. Hijack!

**Mwahaha! Chapter 3! I had a lot of fun writing this one. Heh! Anhoo, I won't drabble on too much, I'll just reply to the many lovely reviews I recieved - **

**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: I'm so glad you think that. One of my main worries is misportraying the cannon characters, but I think I pulled the mummy ones off. I like Beth and Jimmy too, and now you mention it, Jimmy does seem a little like Beni. Heehee, you won't think that later. Oh the trouble he'll cause...**

**candice: I will honey, I am physically incapable of starting a story and not finishing it.**

**melbo18: Thank you! I've started reading your story, and I am of the same opinion about yours as you are of mine. Yay for Leah and Beth! Forever may Rick's sisters rule! Woop!**

**blackmagic111090: Isn't that annoying when you forget what you were gonna say? Yeah, Jimmy is a prat. I want to slap him myself, he's such a prat. He's fun to write though, for now. Heehee, more evil innuendos.**

**Okay, disclaimer: I don't own Rick, Eve, Jonathon, Alex or (sob!) Ardeth. In fact, the only thing in this story so far that I own is Beth and Jimmy, which isn't as cool as owning Ardeth. Sigh!**

**Anhoo, on with the story.

* * *

**

The train screeched to a swift halt, sending its passengers lurching forward in their seats. It was very obvious that they hadn't reached Cairo yet.

"What's happening?" Beth wondered out loud, not so much panicked as perplexed.

"We appear to have stopped." Ardeth answered as he tentatively gazed out of the carriage window.

"No shit Sherlock!" Beth snapped. (a/n - I don't care if that phrase wasn't around then, I had to put it in.) Ardeth frowned. This woman was so infuriatingly disrespectful towards him.

"I just said that we have stopped."

"I know that, dumbass! I want to know why." Beth gently pushed Ardeth out of the way and slid the window open. She then proceeded to peer out of it until she was leaning half-in, half-out. Ardeth's eyes widened at the rather comfortable view Beth had unwittingly given him, and he scolded himself for the hundredth time that day.

The train had stopped in the middle of the desert. All around there was nothing but the train tracks and sand. Beth couldn't see anything else, certainly nothing worth stopping the train for, until her gaze became fixed on the front of the train - the engine. There was a man on a horse, brandishing a rather large looking gun. He was in front of several other men on horses with large looking guns. Beth swore.

"What is it?" Ardeth demanded as Beth swung herself back inside.

"Hijack!" she replied, barely glancing at him as she ran back to the O'Connell's carriage. Ardeth's hands automatically flew to his swords, which rang as he deftly unsheathed them. This was the last thing he needed.

* * *

"My, are we in Cairo already?" Jonathon yawned, having noticed the train stopping. 

"Nope, we're not in Cairo Jonathon." said Rick, who in turn had noticed that they were surrounded by endless desert, and not the bustling crowds of Cairo Station. "Something's wrong."

"Maybe something's wrong with the engine." Eve suggested, forever the optimist. The others seemed to accept this idea, until Beth came crashing into the compartment shouting 'Hijack! We're being hijacked!'. This made everyone slightly less optimistic.

Jonathon was the first to panic, as usual. "Well, what do we do? Are we surrounded? Maybe we could get off the train and make a run for it?"

"In the middle of the desert Jonathon?" Beth shouted.

"Well, what do we do?"

"I don't know. I'm thinking, alright? I've never been on the recieving end of a hijack before."

Rick snorted. "No, but you've been on the hijacking end of a hijack before. Remember, you dragged me along and we all ended up being chased by the sixty armed soldiers that were on board."

"Oh, stop bellyaching. You loved every minute of it, and it was fifty nine armed soldiers, actually, and they were only on board to guard that jade buddha that we were after."

Rick laughed and put on his gun holster, checking each gun he carried was fully loaded. "Well, whatever. I'm going to fetch Alex."

While Jonathon sat there spluttering, flustered by both the shock of the hijack and the news that his sister-in-law had once been a hijacker, Eve simply sighed and shook her head, no longer surprised by anything her husband had done. She strapped her rucksack containing all her archeology tools on her back and went with her husband to collect Alex from the next carriage. Jonathon obviously wasn't going to do anything in a hurry, so Beth took it upon herself to roughly grab him by the arm and drag him outside to where the others were, leaving the carriage empty, though there should have been one other left. In the confusion, no one had noticed that Jimmy was gone.

* * *

"Get Alex, meet me back here. I'm going to find Ardeth." Beth barked at her brother. He nodded and disappeared through the door. Evy and Jonathon went with him. 

"Ardeth!" Beth called. She had no idea where he had gone, or why, and she didn't want to have to go looking incase she bumped into one of those friendly looking hijackers.

"You called?" Ardeth said as he burst through the carriage door opposite to where Rick had gone.

"Jeez!" Beth gasped as she clutched her chest. "You scared me!"

"Sorry. Where are the others?"

"They've gone to get Alex. They'll meet us back here."

"Jimmy too?"

"Yes. Wait...no! Jimmy wasn't there! He's disappeared." Beth screeched.

"With the key!" Ardeth growled. His face darkened with anger, and he stormed back over to the door.

"Wait!" Beth called. She followed him through the door. "Where are you going?"

Ardeth stopped at the steps between the two carriages and climbed them. He heaved himself effortlessly onto the top of the train and stood scanning the horizon. Beth stood next to him and looked in the opposite direction, instantly spotting Jimmy making tracks in the westward direction.

"Behind you." she muttered, and Ardeth turned to see. He let out a cry of anger and leapt off of the train. Beth watched his robes billow out behind him as he fell, and quickly jumped after him, hoping to God that she wouldn't break anything.

* * *

Ardeth dropped from the train and landed hard on his feet. His knees buckled and he unexpectantly fell on his face, filling his stern features with scalding hot sand. Cursing violently in Arabic, he scrambled to his feet and started after Jimmy, who was already far in the distance. Where did he think he was going? That double-crossing American fool was going to pay for his ignorance. Ardeth was going to catch him, and this time he wasn't going to spare his life. This time he was going to slice him from his head to his toes and keep on slicing until his grubby American fingers finally let go of the key. Ardeth was sick to the stomach of doing things Jimmy's way.

* * *

Beth had thankfully jumped from the train without significant injury, and was now frantically trying to keep up with Ardeth. He was livid with anger, which was understandable; Beth was annoyed with Jimmy herself. What kind of lowlife would run off into the desert leaving his only friend behind at the mercy of a group of hijackers? What's more, what kind of lowlife would do all that _and_ take the key with him? He was practically serving it up on a platter for anyone who might be after it, the fool! Beth was worried; Jimmy had never been a bad man, nor a particularly dislikable one, but as soon as he laid eyes on that key he had been selfish, irrational and obnoxious. He seemed possessed, and the very thought of what he might do next sent shivers down Beth's spine.

* * *

"Get off me! Get off me, Medjai scum!" Jimmy struggled against Ardeth as he pinned him to the ground, but his desk-ridden body was no match for the other's muscular arms. Compared to Jimmy, Ardeth had the strength of ten. 

"Where did you think you were going Jimmy? Did you think I was going to let you run off like that with the key?"

Jimmy craned his neck to face Ardeth. His dull grey eyes were alive with hatred, and rather than answering his question, he spat as best he could at the Medjai. Ardeth punched him in return and gave him the mother of all nose bleeds. It is never a good idea to spit in the face of an already pissed-off Medjai.

Ardeth grabbed handfuls of Jimmy's mousy hair and pulled his face close to his. His rage burned behind his sharp, dark eyes. "You know what is at stake, yank." he said quietly. Jimmy flinched at the English slang. "You know that as long as this key remains in existance, the world is at terrible risk of obliteration. You know that there is someone out there willing to kill you for that key you hold so close. And soon you will also know that I am tired of you getting in between me and my duties. Now you will give me the key and avoid a terribly painful death, or I will slice you open and force-feed you your own innards, and then get the key myself."

Jimmy remained silent. His nose was oozing blood onto the sand, which was quickly soaking up the crimson liquid. He resisted the urge to sniff, knowing that you weren't supposed to sniff when you had a nose bleed. Sharp pain went shooting through his head as Ardeth's grip on his scalp tightened - a sign that the Medjai was growing impatient. Ironic thoughts went through his head that only Jimmy would ever know, and a small chuckle caught in his throat. Another bubbled up and escaped, and much to Ardeth's confusion, he burst out laughing. His weak body shook with fits of insane laughter, and he carried on laughing right up until Beth came running up to Ardeth.

"Why's he laughing?" she asked.

"I have no idea." Ardeth grunted. Jimmy had already pissed him off enough today; the insane laughing was the last straw.

"What are you doing?" Beth asked when she saw Ardeth draw his favourite sword. Panic seized her when he didn't answer and simply raised his arm, ready to strike.

"Stop!" she screamed, seizing his arm in attempt to save Jimmy.

Ardeth's eyes regarded Beth with pure contempt. His arm remained poised in the air.

"Why? I have killed men for less, why should he be any different?"

"Because I don't think it's his fault. He might be possessed or something." Beth sighed. Ardeth laughed.

"The key doesn't possess people Beth. Everything Jimmy has done and said has been on his own account."

"Then let him live because I've asked you to, nicely. Let him live for the sake of being humane, and just cut off his hand or something to get the key."

"Excuse me?" Jimmy screeched. "Cut off my hand?"

"It's more than you deserve, you selfish American pig." Ardeth grunted.

"And it's really your own fault for not handing the key over." Beth added. Jimmy sighed. It was time for a compromise.

"Look, don't kill me, or dismember any limbs. Just take me to Nak Tahn and prove to me that there's some kind of threat to the world, and then you can have the key, like we agreed before."

An eternity passed before Ardeth nodded in agreement. He still didn't trust Jimmy, but he could always kill him if he tried anything again. Besides, this way he didn't have to dirty his sword up so soon in the journey. He voiced this thought.

"I still don't trust you Jimmy, but know that I will kill you if you try anything again, no matter how much Beth begs for your life."

"Understood." Jimmy murmered. Ardeth let him get up and he rubbed his sore head.

Beth glanced back at the train. "What about the hijack? The others are still on the train waiting for me. If we go back for them then we could catch the hijackers' attention, and then we'll never get anywhere."

"We just go. Just the three of us." Jimmy replied.

"But the tools, the guns..."

"Leave them. And don't worry about your family; I'm sure your brother can take care of them."

So they all reluctantly trudged off into the desert to find Nak Tahn.

* * *

Meanwhile, the O'Connell/Callahan family were waiting nervously in the carriage as the hijackers grew ever closer...

* * *

**Ahh! What's gonna happen next? Even I don't know! Hee hee, a cliffhanger is always good, unless you're reading it 'coz then it's frustrating. So to save yourself frustration you must review me and when I get enough I will update. Mwahaha!**


	4. And So The Plot Thickens

**#Hello! I am back, at last. Ngh! This story is taking longer and longer to write as I go on, which is not a good sign. However, I am all rested after Easter and filled with lots of chocolate. Did you know chocolate is a brain food? It is - it's filled with magnesium and stuff. Yes, it is. So now I should be brainier and able to write more stuff. **

**ha ha ha! Stop laughing Pablo!**

**Anyhoo, here is chapter four. It should be better than the others 'coz I recently got a book called 'When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Writer', and it's helping me iron out my writing flaws. If it hasn't worked then please tell me and I will scold myself. And for those of you who haven't yet encountered my little friend Pablo before, let me introduce you. Readers, this is Pablo the penguin who lives in my head. Pablo, these are the nice reading people that read my work. Pablo's crazy, by the way.**

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to go through this again? It's on all the other chapters: read them if you can't remember what I do and do not own.**

**Review replies: Me: Hi hi honey! I kind of did guess seeing as you were the only other person who bothered to write down the website address, but you know that already because I told you at school because I took so long to update this story. And I do feel wanted now. But Mara hasn't been reviewing lately. And she calls me lazy! Where was I? Oh, yeah. Thanks for saying you like the first chapter. Maybe one day you'll get round to ths one and read this reply to your lovely review. Of course you can have a cookie. You can have Mara's too 'coz she hasn't reviewed lately (but at least she is reading my story). Heh, I'm feeling mean. I say Hi back to all your strange friends whoever they were. Merry easter to you too (heh! that was ages ago) Luv ya!**

**Okay, chapter 4 will begin after this brief announcement: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE ROCK!

* * *

**

It was a long and hard journey across the shimmering desert. With no horses or camels to bear them to their destination, Beth was becoming ever more doubtful that they would ever reach Nak Tahn. She dared not voice these doubts, for Ardeth was becoming grouchier by the second. All pleasant moods had been sucked out of him by the scorching sun. Unfortunately, Jimmy was not being so tactful as Beth.

"Hey, Medjai! How much longer is it until we get to the damn city?" he barked. Ardeth replied with a swift kick to the shins.

"I did not say you could talk." he sneered as Jimmy hopped around, cursing in over six different languages. Beth side-stepped around him and hurried to keep up with Ardeth's quickening pace.

"That was uncalled for." she gasped. The dusty air was getting to her throat.

"Wrong. It was very much called for."

"He asked a valid question. How long _will_ it take to find Nak Tahn?

"You do not find Nak Tahn. It finds you."

Ardeth's cryptic words left Beth intrigued, but his icy tone was enough to warn her that he was done talking. She resigned herself to the silence once more and checked behind her to find that Jimmy was still hopping and cursing. She wondered why the heck she had ever agreed to work for him in the first place.

* * *

Night had finally fallen and wrapped it's cooling fingers around the reluctant trio. Ardeth had at first been keen to keep travelling throughout the night, but he quickly changed his mind when his boot thudded against a dog-rock buried in the sand. Though deeply confused, Beth was too exhausted to worry, and had lain down upon the ground as soon as she had gotten a fire going. Jimmy and Ardeth assumed she was asleep and left her alone whilst they glared at eachother from opposite sides of the fire.

However, Beth was not asleep. As tired as she was, sleep would not claim her. Instead she let her mind wander as freely as she wished she could. Her thoughts settled upon her family. Guilt stabbed at her soul as she realised how heartless she had been when she had left them behind at the mercy of the hijackers. What kind of hypocrite had she become? Had she not been outraged at Jimmy when he had done the same thing to her? Why didn't she go back for them instead of leaving them stranded in the desert? Questions flooded Beth's head as she became increasingly angry with herself and sleep edged further and further away.

* * *

The last hour before sunrise dragged on for Ardeth. He was weary from the journey from the train track, and he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep because Jimmy hadn't stopped watching him all night. A single yawn escaped from him just as the sun began to peek above the horizon, sending her orange glow streaming across the sky like spilled ink. Ardeth watched as the sun's rays choked the night sky and filled the land with light once more. Jimmy still watched Ardeth like a hawk, but if he had cared to look over his shoulder he would have witnessed the daily betrayal of one of Egypt's great secrets. He would have seen the lost city of Nak Tahn as it revealed itself against the backdrop of the rising sun, with its looming gates of granite and its looming tower made entirely of crumbling sandstone. Though more than half gone thanks to the harsh winds of time, it was still higher than Big Ben. Intact it would have rivalled even the Empire State building.

"Woah." Beth murmured. She got up from her resting place and stood next to Ardeth. Seeing Beth's face finally convinced Jimmy to turn around, and when he did he laughed. He laughed the same insane laughter that Beth had seen back at the office when she showed him the key. His laughter gave her the same uneasy feeling she had felt back then, and without knowing it her hand slipped defensively to her gun.

* * *

_Meanwhile, back at the train... _(a/n - sorry, always wanted to do that.)

"Where is she?" Jonathon demanded as he nervously hopped from one foot to another. His question went unanswered as the rest of his family chose to ignore him; they were all busy enoguh with their own problems. Eve was busy comforting Alex, although Alex needed no comforting, while Rick was busy trying to figure out the best way to get out of this situation. They all just left Jonathon to his panicking.

Rick glanced out of the window and watched the hijackers as they appeared to argue with one another. There were three that Rick could see as their arguement became more heated. The tall, lanky one was shouting at the other two and waving his arms frantically as if he were swatting a mosquito. He appeared to be the leader as his comrades simply hung their heads while he unleashed his wrath upon them. The fatter of the two seemed to be less than happy with how he was being treated and soon began shouting back at Lanky. Lanky responded by striking Fatty across the face, leaving the third hijacker to sit upon his horse in silence, flinching at his masters sudden violence. He was much smaller and far more timid than the others, like a mouse.

"What's going on?" Eve asked as she wrapped her arms around her husbands waist.

"They're argueing." he replied. He watched a few more seconds and saw, to his surprise, Lanky, Fatty and Mousy all ride off into the desert as if the very fires of Hell were behind them. Rick gently pulled away from Eve and peered out of the other window to see exactly where they were going, but could only see trails of dust rising up from the ground.

"Well," he said more to himself than anyone. "Hijack's over." Everyone sighed with relief and joined him in looking out of the window while they waited for Beth and Ardeth to reappear still.

* * *

"What are those tracks?" Joanthon asked after a few seconds.

"That's just the hijackers running off." Rick replied still deep in thought.

"No, I mean those tracks coming from this carriage. They look like footsteps."

Rick looked at where his brother-in-law was pointing and groaned when he realised that Beth wasn't coming back. "Come on everybody." He backed away from the window and headed to the door. "Let's go play 'Chase The Sister' one more time." And so they went to fetch some horses from the livestock carriage.

* * *

"What are you laughing at Jimmy?" Ardeth snapped. "We still have an hour's march to get there, and there are booby traps everywhere."

Jimmy's laughter died in his throat until it was no more than a pathetic squawk. He looked at Ardeth as if he had just landed in a spaceship. Then he sucked in a deep, abrupt breath and seemed to return to the real world again.

"Booby traps?" he said. Ardeth nodded impatiently. "Foolish Medjai! There are no booby traps. Nak Tahn wasn't built with grave robbers in mind. It wasn't hidden to keep it's dangers away from the human race. It was built to be found; it was built so that one day someone would come along and release its evil upon the Earth. Booby traps wouldn't exactly be appropriate, would they Ardeth?" Jimmy's voice suddenly went ice cold, and a wry smile danced upon his thin lips. He reached into his pocket and drew out a small handgun, then calmly pointed it at Ardeth. The uneasy feeling suddenly grew tenfold within Beth. She knew now that Jimmy wasn't possessed. Jimmy was reincarnated.

"Goodbye, Medjai scum." he said.

* * *

**DUN DUN DUN! Heh heh, cliffhanger! Anyhoo, I have now finally finished this chapter (Woo hoo! I must have restarted it, like, 3 times!), so now you must all review me and make me a happy little bunny. Constructive critisisms, random outbursts or crazy ramblings, I don't care. Just don't bother flaming, 'coz there is really no point. Seriously, flaming is more pointless than having a royal family (oh dear, we're getting political). **

**Okay, anyone who has read my Three Ninja story will notice that I have taken it down because it really sucked and I need to start over on that one. I won't even bother apologising 'coz I know no one's gonna miss it. For the rest of you, hang on to your hats for the next chapter! Poop!**

**UPDATE: Here are replies to the nice encouraging reviews I got. I figured I wouldn't be mean and make you wait until i put the next chapter up. (See Mara, I am nice!) THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS, THEY KEEP ME GOING! (yeah, how many times have you heard that before?)**

**ZELINIA: Really? She has flaws? She's not a mary sue, she's just an OC? Cool! I have a non-marysue character! Whoop! Yeah, she spunky. How else could you stand to work for Jimmy for years on end? And I know they get left behind, but i missed writing about them so I made them follow them with horses, yay!**

**ZELINIA: AHHHHHH! I know exactly how you feel. I am torn between keeping him alive because he is just too yummy, and killing him off just to be different. Oh, the mental anguish! I will update as soon as my writing demons let me, which may or may not be that long depnding on how hard they work us at school this term (which will be pretty hard because we have our SATS coming up). Grrr - too little time.**

**blackmagic 111090: Yeah, jimmy is creepy. I don't like writing his character anymore because he scares me. But Eve is a reincarnation of Nefertiti and she doesn't want to take over the world. Besides, Jimmy isn't too bothered about world domination; he'd be happy with a nice big apocalypse.**

**movieluver: Thank you! You're too kind. I'm glad you like the story. I'm guessing they'll be a romance between Ardeth and Beth, but only if he lives long enough, or if she does for that matter. Oh, who knows what I will do next? Mwahaha! Ahem, yes. Of course I'll write more. I've got myself hooked now. Just watch this space o luver of movies...**


	5. This is No Fairytale, Kiddies!

**Right, I'm back again with the next chapter all written and stuff, purely for your entertainment. So you'd better be entertained, alright? Blood, sweat and tears went into this...sniffle! Oh, ignore me. I'm just feeling silly. I will shut up and get on with the chapter, round about now.**

**Disclaimer: I own Beth and Jimmy, and Lanky, Fatty and Mousy. Everyone else mentioned belong to the wonderful people who gave us The Mummy. You know this already, but I had to put it in for the sake of being a good little fanfic writer. However, I will greatly appreciate it if anyone is willing to sign Ardeth Bay over to me in a nice big contract. **

**By the way: Mara, you are very overdue in the reviewing of these latest chapters! Don't make me set my Krinks on you...which reminds me to remind you that Emma is desperate for the return of Sam + Em's Fairytales. But that is a private matter and I now have to get on with the story.**

**P.S. No one noticed yet but in chapter 1, I said that Jimmy had deep green eyes, but in chapter 3 I said they were dull and grey. Jimmy's eyes are grey and I only said they were green before because his character was still developing in my head at that point. Right, on we go...**

A single thought crossed Beth's mind as she watched Jimmy aim the gun at Ardeth: she had to stop him, no matter what. Without even thinking about what she was doing, she wildly lunged at Jimmy intent on knocking the weapon from his hands, but she was too late. The smoke was already rising from the barrell. The gunshot already sounded through the air, but Beth didn't care. She still swung at Jimmy in attempt to hit him, to cause him some form of pain. He blocked her easily and took a firm grip on her left wrist, his bony fingers digging into her tanned flesh. She tried to wrench herself free but it was as though Jimmy's was the very hand of death, with a hold so cold and unbreakable.

"You should have left them behind, Beth." he hissed, pulling her closer to him. His voice was pure venom, as if he were a snake. "You could have spared them so much bloodshed." Beth craned her neck to see behind her as Ardeth unceremoniously slumped to the ground. She was not looking as Jimmy raised his other hand high in the air and brought it down like the hammer of Thor, so that the metal of the pistol thudded painfully against her skull. The blazing desert sun swiftly faded into blackness, and unconsciousness enveloped Beth into a world of twisted dreams.

Three brown horses galloped across the sandy terrain, long into the night. They were tired, but their masters were anxious to get to their destination quickly, and so the horses went on. By the time the first rays of sun peeked over the sand dunes, they had been forced to slow down to a begrudging trot. Their masters were no less anxious.

"They were on foot. We should have caught up with them by now." Rick mumbled to himself more than anybody. Beside him his wife matched his speed so that she could talk to him.

"I still don't know why they would have left us like that." Eve stated. Her face was unusually heavy with worry and confusion. "Beth I can understand, but Ardeth? I can't help feeling something is horribly wrong." Eve looked over at her husband. He sighed, but offered no reply. His eyes remained fixed on the road ahead.

Behind them Alex and Jonathon chattered and yawned, "All I'm saying is that losing a diamond as big as my head in a card game is nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to people all the time." Alex shook his head and ignored his uncle. He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep, leaning against Jonathon's back and shifting in the saddle. It was hard work. Just as he was drifting off, a harsh cry from his father wrenched him from the Land of Nod and dumped him back into reality.

"Woss...wha?" he mumbled.

"Trouble ahead." Jonathon replied as he urged the horse into a gallop again. They swiflty reached a sheltered niche in the dunes where a dark body lay near a simple burned-out campfire. Alex's stomach lurched when he saw the body was Ardeth. He lay on his back, with his piercing dark eyes staring up at the sky. His crimson-soaked hands were clasping his belly, attempting to stop the spurting of blood that stained his black robes. He was dying.

"Ardeth!" Rick yelled desperately. He jumped from his horse without waiting for it to stop and staggered as best he could across the sand to his friend. "What happened?" He knelt down beside him and lifted Ardeth's head onto his lap. He smoothed a lock of ebony curls from his face and waited for an answer. Slowly, Ardeth looked up at Rick with pleading eyes. His voice spluttered to life and words forced themselves from his lips.

"Beth..." he whispered. "Jimmy has Beth...he is...reincarnation." Ardeth's eyes half-closed and his head flopped back against Rick's hand. His breathing was laboured, catching in his throat as new waves of pain shot through his system. Eve came and knelt down next to her husband and squeezed the Medjai's hand reassuringly.

"Don't worry, buddy." Rick's voice cracked; it was so distressing to see Ardeth like this. "We'll find 'em." Ardeth smiled and let his face relax as he slipped into a deep sleep. Rick and Eve could only bind the wound and carry him gently to a horse, praying that he would eventually wake up.

Beth opened her eyes with difficulty. Fuzzy dark images whirled and cleared to show a huge statue of Bast, made entirely of gold. At its feet Jimmy was hopping around on one foot. _On no, I'm still dreaming!_ she thought, but the sudden intense throbbing of her head told her other wise. Her head felt like it was about to pop and a splitting headache threatened to tear her skull in two. Now fully sobered up by the pain, she sat up and found that her wrists and ankles were shackled to an altar. A chill raced down her spine when she recognised it as a sacrifcial altar, and the memory of past events came flooding back. Jimmy had shot Ardeth, he had pistol-whipped her and now he was going to sacrifice her in order to bring an all-powerful nameless mummy back to life. Great.

"Let me go Jimmy." Beth demanded with a voice more confident than she felt. Jimmy stopped hopping and stared at her. A bemused grin spread across his face.

"Or you'll do what?"

"Or I'll damn well break every bone in your body you bastard!" she yelled back. She struggled against her shackles and angry tears stung her eyes. Jimmy snorted.

"How? You're chained to a sacrificial altar! And I doubt anyone is going to come and do it for you. Your little Medjai pet is dead, and your family are probably lost in the desert somewhere after the hijack. It's just you and me, all alone here in the depths of a lost city that nobody knows about. So just shut up and die quietly like a good girl." His words burned Beth like a red-hot poker. He was right. Ardeth was dead, and the others would never find Nak Tahn without his guidance. It was up to her to stop Jimmy, but she couldn't do anything when she couldn't get off the altar. She was going to die with only Jimmy there to gloat over her. She stopped struggling against her restraints, and Jimmy chuckled at his minor victory.

Ardeth awoke to find himself in darkness. All around him there was nothing, no light, no air, nothing at all that could lay claim to the physical state of the mortal world. He felt nothing, not even a dull resemblance of paralysis, and he no longer troubled his mind with thought. There was just affirmation. Ardeth could finally be at rest, free of worry and responsibilty. He could finally merge with the endless spirits of those that had gone before him, no longer an independant being, but part of those that had passed on. Eternal slumber welcomed him.

On the other side, Rick rode with all his might towards Nak Tahn. He had managed to catch a glimpse of it just before the sun had risen completely and once more hidden its whereabouts. He only hoped his sense of direction was as good as it once had been. He cradled Ardeth against his chest, frequently checking that his friend was still breathing. Rick was deeply concerned about how quickly the Medjai was losing body heat in the scorching desert sun. He didn't know what to do for the best.

"How's he doing?" Eve called from behind. Rick could tell from her voice that she was as worried as he was. They hadn't let Jonathon and Alex see Ardeth incase they started panicking, so only he and Eve knew how bad he really was.

"Not good." he replied as quietly as he could. "He's gone completely cold." Out of habit, Rick checked to see if he was breathing again. There was nothing, and his bronzed skin was drained of colour. His once sharp eyes were now dull and lifeless. Even the gun wound had slowed down from spurting a river of blood to oozing a smudge. Ardeth's heart had stopped pumping, his lungs had ceased breathing. He was dead.

"Oh my God, no!"

In the depths of Nak Tahn, Jimmy began to chant as he held out a golden dagger so intricately engraved it looked too beautiful to be be capable of killing someone, but it was...

**Mwahaha! Sorry kiddies, this is no fairytale ending! Falconwings14 has gone evil on you Ardeth fangirls, but do not fear because he will make a reappearance in this story. Hmm, will it be a flashback, or will I bring him back from the dead? Ohmigosh this is so fun! I was gonna have it all perfect with Ardeth and Beth falling in love and stuff, but now I'm fighting against that desire to write the fic for myself and writing it for an audience instead! I think I might give up Mary Sues full stop now. They're boring to write, and to read as i have been informed by a helpful reviewer.**

**And on the banning of songfics - I am sad as I was going to write some, and i was looking forward to Veritas Indolentia Adamo's series of evanescence sonfics, but the mods do have a point. I mean, the lyrics were written by the songwriters and shouldn't really be put in someone else's fanfic, unless you have permission. Hmm, do you think My Chemical Romance woill let me write a Buffy fanfic with the lyrics to Vampires Will Never Hurt You in it? Oh, never mind. i was struggling anyway.**


	6. Blood, Guts And Tears

**You know I'm not getting as many reviews as I was earlier in the story. Is it just because people are getting lazy , though I can totally relate to that (no laughing Marakins), or are there not so many people reading anymore? I want answers! So just to let you readers know that once you have read this you must leave a review, even if it is just to say 'Hello'. Just to let me know how many people are still reading this. **

**Anyways, celebrations! My year 9 SATS are all done and dusted and were nowhere as hard as I thought they were going to be! Whoop! And I can finally play MCR's 'Headfirst for Halos' on my trusty bass guitar! Whoop! And I'm on chapter 6 of this story! Hooray! And I mustn't forget watching the first ever episode of Invader Zim! That was pure comedic genius. So, yeah. I'm very happy at the moment. Come! Join me in the chicken dance! (Singing) Doo doo da da doo, la la la doo dum!**

**Looks around at lack of fellow chicken dancers Umm...right. Here follows chapter 6. Enjoy.

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"Rick!" Eve called out. She could tell from the look on her husband's face before he rode off that Ardeth was dead. The realisation had hit her like sledgehammer, leaving her fighting for breath. Years of being a mother had taught her to be strong and to keep up a tough front for the sake of her son, but try as she might she couldn't stop the tears from spilling from her eyes. Ardeth, a man who had saved the lives of her and her family countless times over, was now a limp corpse hanging from Rick's horse as he galloped furiously into the distance. The burning desert sun had no effect on her body left cold from shock and loss, and Eve felt so incredibly alone now that her husband was no longer riding at her side, despite Jonathon and Alex being right behind her. Why had Rick ridden off without her?

Rick had panicked. Ardeth was his closest friend, no matter what Rick often felt when he turned up out of the blue. Now he was dead, killed by Jimmy. And Jimmy had the Book of The Dead. Or at least, that was what Rick was hoping. How else did he plan to bring that damn mummy back to life? Jimmy also had Beth, and Rick wasn't going to let her die right before his eyes as well. He had promised Ardeth that he would find them, and that was what he was going to do. He didn't have time to grieve for Ardeth, or even think too hard about his death. He had a mission, and he was going to complete that mission no matter what. Besides, he didn't have to worry about Ardeth being dead if he was going to bring him back, did he?

* * *

Jimmy had almost finished his chanting, and poised the dagger above Beth's heart with an ominous stance. He looked into the eyes of his sacrifice and saw nothing. No fear or anger, no hatred or despair. They were just blue pools of emptiness, and Jimmy's heart skipped a beat. He feared her soul had somehow escaped her body before he could finish the ritual and frantically searched for something to prove him wrong. Then, to his relief, Beth slowly moved her eyes to meet his as a sign that she was still alive.

"You've gone and spoiled the ritual now." she said, her voice flat and monotone. Her words held no feeling, they were just a simple fact stated by a woman past caring. Jimmy was slightly unnerved by how deeply Beth had broken.

Three men burst into the chamber and quickly surrounded the altar. To Beth they seemed familiar, like memories of a dream. "You're late!" Jimmy barked at them. "You had a head start and you still got here after me!" Beth saw one of them hang his head at his master's scorn and remembered where she had seen the three before. It was the hijackers from the train. They had worked for Jimmy all along.

"We didn't have a Medjai to guide us there, like you master. We got a little lost." Lanky replied. Jimmy merely snarled at him and signalled for them all to take up their places around Beth. Fatty and Mousy promptly got down on their knees and began rocking back and forth, but Lanky stayed put. He still had something else to say, "There were others, master. The O'Connells?"

"Yes, what about them?" Jimmy demanded.

"We fear they may have left the train and followed your tracks into the desert." Jimmy didn't seem to process the information at first. His face darkened with conflicting emotions, crossing from anger to disbelief, to pure annoyance. He was sure they wouldn't be able to find Nak Tahn without knowing how, but tracks were tracks. If they were still there after the rolling breeze, then Rick could follow them with ease.

Finally Jimmy spoke. "If they have followed us, then we haven't got much time. We'll have to perform the ritual as quickly as possible." His eyes flicked over to Beth. "At least the sacrifice won't put up too much resistance." But Jimmy had failed to notice the sudden fire in Beth's eyes. News of the O'Connells had ignited a spark of hope within her, and suddenly she was filled with angry reflections on how easily she had been broken. How dare Jimmy treat her like nothing more than a flimsy toy after all she had done for him? The thirst for revenge burned deep behind Beth's eyes as she searched for a way to get out of the situation, testing her shackles again and again.

"Oh, we're back in the world of the living are we?" Jimmy sneered, cruelly fingering his dagger. Beth ignored him and struggled harder. Ardeth had already died because of Jimmy; she wasn't going to be next. Jimmy observed her and chuckled, "Oh dear, not working is it? Don't panic so much Beth, anyone would think that you didn't want to join the Medjai in the afterlife!" Beth felt hot tears threatening to leak out. She was not going to let Jimmy get away with this. As soon as she was free from these shackles then she was going to thrash him until he begged for mercy, she was going rip him apart until he was in a thousand pieces, and she was going to hack off his copulatary organs and nail them to a door!

SNAP! Her ankle restraints abruptly tore free from the stone, sending a chunk of rock flying straight into Fatty's nose. It hit him with such force that he fell flat on the floor, unconscious. Jimmy sighed.

"Now that was very stupid. You've annoyed me now." He brought the golden dagger down, aimed straight at Beth's heart. With a grunt she swiftly lifted her legs so that she was bent double, pulling on her wrist restraints for leverage. Her feet connected with Jimmy's chin, making a satisfying crack and causing him to fall backwards onto the floor.

"Next?" Beth demanded, readying herself for another attack. Mousy took one look at his master groaning on the floor and quickly scurried out of the room, wherever that was. Beth made a mental note to find out exactly where in Nak Tahn she was, before her attention was drawn back to Lanky as he swung some lethal looking contraption above his head with a loud war cry. Beth had only time for instinctive action before he let it fall down towards her. She rolled to her left, causing the weapon to miss her by mere inches. It had, however, desecrated the shackle restraining her right hand, allowing her to swing off of the altar and stand up. Lanky let out another great cry and swung at her once more with what Beth could now identify as a mace. She stepped back, leaving her just out of Lanky's reach.

"Sorry," she pouted. "I forgot to stand still." This angered Lanky, surprisingly, and he made another swing, this time faster than Beth could anticipate. She moved as best she could, but the iron head of the mace connected with her belly, tearing through her side like it was paper. Lanky laughed in triumph, and stood gloating over a wounded Beth.

"Aw, the white girl is hurt. Will she cry now? Will she cry tears over her little scratch?" He mocked her a little too enthusiastically and let the mace hang limply by his side, thinking Beth finished. He snarled as she dropped to her knees with her arms clasping her side. Blood flooded from her wound, trickling onto her arms and leaving crimson trails on her skin, and all she could think of as her very life drained from her body, was that she needed to avenge Ardeth. She needed to kick Lanky's ass and then teach Jimmy not to mess with an O'Connell. Then, when that was done she could collapse and die peacefully, but not yet. Not yet.

* * *

Beth shuddered as the shock wore off and pain swept through her body in waves of purest agony. For a second she was blinded by how much it hurt, but she was woman: she was built to endure such agony as childbirth. She had to keep moving. It was at that point where Beth looked up, saw the mace hanging at ease and grabbed it before Lanky had the chance to even stop laughing. Within seconds Lanky was flat on the floor with only half of his face recognisable. His good eye was wide open and completely still, not even flickering. His mouth hung open in a silent scream. Beth dropped the mace and stepped over her deceased adversary, wincing as her left side screamed at her. It felt like her entire body was on fire, but she felt a slight bit better having slain the one that caused her suffering. Now all that was left was Jimmy.

The weasel himself was still lying on the floor, drifting in and out of consciousness. 'God, he's pathetic!' Beth thought. 'One hit and he's out like this?' She kicked him in the ribs, feeling her own in agony over the rough movement, then gritted her teeth, bent down and grabbed hold of a handful of his clothes. She hoisted him up, grunting in pain, and shoved him against the wall.

"Wake up, shit-for-brains, so I can hear you scream when I kill you!" she yelled into his ear. Her breathing had become haggard and her words were spoken in a strained voice, but Jimmy could feel every inch of pure hatred being sent towards him. He woke up.

"Hey Beth, you're looking crappy. Had a bad day?" he hissed. Beth smiled sweetly and kneed him right in the crown jewels. He cried out and tried to lean forward, but all he did was lean against Beth.

"You know, if I were Ardeth, you'd have been dead hours ago, Jimmy." she whispered into his ear.

Jimmy shuddered. Beth's tone was icy, unfeeling, frightening. "But you're not Ardeth."

"No. I'm not. And he's not here because you killed him before even giving him a chance to defend himself." Beth traced a finger down Jimmy's arm and stopped to close her hand around his. He looked down to see that he still had the dagger. He had forgotten that, but it was too late react, because Beth soon tore it from his grasp and pointed it towards his exposed throat. The intricate carvings on the dagger depicted scenes of war and death; many Egyptian figures were shown dead upon the ground, lying in a river of their comrades' blood. Jimmy looked away from the dagger to meet unfamiliar eyes. Beth had changed from the kind-hearted girl he had been hoping to rip off and sacrifice. Now she had taken another human life, and she was cold, colder than the stone wall she had Jimmy pinned up against. "Jimmy," she whispered, "You killed Ardeth. So now he's not here to kill you for all the terrible things you've done." Jimmy tried to swallow using a suddenly very dry throat. Beth's tone sent shivers down his spine. "Do you know what that means?" she asked him. He could barely shake his head. "That means it's up to me to kill you, and you've graciously given me a weapon. How kind."

Jimmy began to panic. He wasn't supposed to die yet. He still had years of service to his master. He had sold his soul to him, if he died before fulfilling his purpose then he would be condemned to an eternity of Hell. He had to talk Beth out of killing him, "Beth, I can explain. It wasn't me...it was the key! It possessed..." The last word faded into a strangled cry as the dagger of death sliced through his tender stomach. His guts writhed as blood flowed into places it wasn't designed to be in, and bile rose to the back of his throat. He didn't have time to register the pain before a second blow was dealt to his neck, killing him instantly. Beth didn't grimace, didn't smile as she killed her former employer. She just dropped the knife and wondered out of the ceremonial chamber of Nak Tahn to begin her search for somewhere suitable to curl up and die.

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"Beth! Beth!" Rick yelled. Ardeth was slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and his gun was in his other hand. He searched for his sister in every nook and cranny of Nak Tahn, apart from, of course, the one nook that she was hiding in.

Behind the great crumbling tower, Beth lay soaking in a pool of her own blood. She had lost so much blood...too much. Everything was turning black, and she couldn't even hear her brother calling her. As far as she knew he was somewhere in the desert buried by a sandstorm. She had nothing but pain and sweet, blissful unconsciousness to keep her company while she slowly slipped away, though Rick was mere feet away from her. He would miss her by a hair.

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Rick had descended into the lower levels of Nak Tahn in his search for his sister. He stumbled into the ceremonial chamber, with Ardeth still slung over his shoulder, and was shocked at the sight before him. Two strangers lay on the floor, one of them killed by such horrific injuries that even Rick had to turn away. Then there was Jimmy, slumped on the ground with his grey eyes wide and lifeless. Blood overflowed from his gaping mouth, dripping onto hands that clasped a greater wound in vain. His neck was ripped open by a stab wound, as was his stomach. As he looked upon these corpses, Rick could only think of one thing: Beth. How committing such violent murders must have changed her; how she must have been in utter desperation to do so in the first place. How there was another alarming pool of blood some way away from any of the bodies. Beth's blood. Rick studied the blood, as if he would be able to distinguish it from his sister's just from sight. He couldn't, but there were small splats leading from it where she must have moved over to kill Jimmy. They went all the way from his body, to the passage outside the chamber, and possibly further. Rick growled in frustration at having not noticed the trail before and quickly followed it right to Beth's hiding place. He seemed to have completely forgotten about the dead Medjai bobbing along on his back.

* * *

Rick knelt beside his sister with silver tears streaming down his face. He was too late. Always too late. Ardeth was laid out beside Beth, his ghostly skin contrasting with the crimson blood she lay in. Rick had lost both of them in one fell swoop and he was helpless to do anything about it. He couldn't bring them back as the Book of The Dead was nowhere to be found and, thankfully, so was the mummy. But Rick didn't care about the stupid mummy, he cared about the two people in front of him, both so cold in the cursed desert sun. He could do nothing but weep for them as grief finally caught up with him and tore out his heart. If only he had been faster.

A warm hand was placed on Rick's shoulder. He turned round to see Alex standing behind him, with a solemn face no twelve-year-old should ever wear. "It's not hopeless, dad." he whispered, his own eyes filling with tears. Rick pulled his son into a fierce bear hug and smoothed down his blond hair.

"I know, Alex." he replied, not really meaning it. He looked up to see Eve and Jonathon behind them, and the anguish in his wife's eyes made his words even more meaningless. Suddenly, O'Connell and Carnahan alike were all drawn into the hug, each mourning the loss of loved ones. Alex tried to wriggle free, but Rick just tightened his grip.

"Dad!" he protested, to no avail. Grief had too strong a hold on his father for him to listen. "Dad, listen! I can bring them back!" He broke free from the tangle of relatives and stood with his hands on his hips. "I can remember the words from The Book of The Dead!"

"How?" Eve demanded.

"I just do!" he responded. Everyone stared at him with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with it!" Jonathon yelled with his usual tact. Rick raised an eyebrow questioningly in his direction. "Well I'm not completely emotionally detached you know!" he explained. "I miss them too!" Alex shrugged and hopped over to Beth and Ardeth. He forced himself to ignore the twisted mess of flesh that was now Beth's side, and he wouldn't look at the gun wound that Ardeth bore. Instead, he threw himself a year back, to Ahm Sher, where he had The Book of The Dead in his hands and was reading from the black, heavy pages. The words began to flow from his mouth, filling the air with their meaning. It was as if the very breeze crackled with life, and then as quickly as that life had come, it disappeared again, leaving nothing but calm.

* * *

"It didn't work." Rick sighed, disappointed. Alex hung his head in defeat and stared at Beth and Ardeth, willing them to live again.

"Perhaps it is the act of reading from the book, rather than the words, that bring the dead back to life." Eve suggested. That didn't help everyone's mood.

"Well, what are we supposed to do now?" Jonathon cried. He kicked angrily at the sand, carelessly sending it all over the two bodies. Rick grabbed him roughly by the arm.

"Hey! Be respectful towards the dead!" he yelled. Jonathon squirmed in his grip, refusing to face him. Rick became angrier and brought Jonathon's face up to his, only to see tears in his brother-in-law's icy blues. What was he doing?

"Oh, for crying' out loud! Put him down Rick!" Beth growled. Slowly, four pairs of eyes turned to meet her as she stood up and dusted herself off. Her hands lingered on her missing side, and she looked questioningly at her family.

"Beth!" Rick cried before he rushed at her and wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could. "You're alive! Oh my God, you're alive!" Beth laughed and pushed her brother away, only to be bombarded by everyone else. They all toppled onto the sand in a big heap of ecstatic joy.

"Oh, get off! I won't be alive for much longer if you all dog pile me!" Beth giggled, rolling out from underneath Jonathon and Alex. She found herself looking straight at Ardeth, who was still lying on the ground. "Oh, God!" she whispered.

"Did it work on Ardeth too?" Eve asked. She watched as Beth poked him in the face with the usual O'Connell subtlety. He grunted and rolled over, as if being woken up early on a Saturday, then suddenly sat bolt upright with a shriek.

"What? Where? Why?" he demanded, turning to each O'Connell/Carnahan in turn with wild, questioning eyes. He looked like a deer caught in headlights. Beth stared at him in disbelief, her blue eyes stopping at the raw, bloody hole in his abdomen. She never had a chance to grieve for him, only to avenge his death, and now he was alive before her eyes again. She was alive again. It was all too much, for her as well as for Ardeth.

"Ardeth?" Eve said soothingly. "It's all right. Jimmy's dead, the mummy is still dead, and you're alive again. We brought you back."

"You brought me back?" Ardeth's eyes went wider still as anger was added to his flood of emotions. "I was finally at rest, with no responsibilities, or temptations." He looked pointedly at Beth. "I had fulfilled my path in life, with no need to think or to care or to worry, and you tore me from the afterlife to bring me back to this place!" He jumped to his feet and took a few shaky steps. "I had total peace and tranquillity. Now I have pain, noise, burning heat, and evil to fight again! This is like a...like Hell! Why did you bring me back to this place of fire and pain? Why?"

Everyone stared at him in shock. No one had any answers for him, other than 'Because we missed you', which would have sounded terribly selfish at the time. Their silence only angered Ardeth further, and with a howl of frustration he stormed off, out of the city and rode off into the desert on one of the O'Connell's horses.

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"Well that was unexpected." Eve sighed. Her voice betrayed the tears that were threatening to spill out.

"But it was completely understandable." Beth retorted. She looked at the faces of the people she loved most in the world, and wondered what they would have done if they hadn't brought her back. She wondered what they would have done if she hadn't turned up on their door with the key in the first place. _Probably would have had a nice peaceful summer._ a voice in the back of her head told her. Still, it was useless hanging around on the what-ifs and why-fors. Life was too short, and Beth knew that now better than most. "Come on, let's go home." she murmured with a voice as weary as she felt. Being raised from the dead was tiring work.

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**Yes, I brought him back. What, you thought I could really leave my precious Ardeth dead? Sorry, no. That body is too good to leave as a rotting corpse. At least it wasn't all 'Oh-thank-you-for-bringing-me-back-and-I-forgot-to-mention-Beth-I-love-you-insert-smooshy-stuff-here'. That comes later grins.**

**I think I enjoyed murdering Jimmy too much. Considering he was never originally meant to be evil, this could be a bad thing. But he was evil, so don't get all upset, kiddies. I don't like the way I did the bringing-back-to-life bit, but I couldn't think of any other way to put it, so there you go. And poor Ardeth, spending most of this chapter slung over Rick's shoulder. Anyway, any queries or bloopers to point out are welcome as my ego needs some serious deflating. And flamers are also welcome, as I am deserved of some punishing right now for reasons I will not go into. Oh, and there is one more chapter to come, but it will be much shorter than usual and it may contain major soppiness. You have been warned.**

**Review please! Remember, I need an idea of how many people read this, and the general reception would be appreciated.**

**Also, sorry for taking so long to post!**

**ZELINIA:** **Yeah, was not good the way I brought them back. Grr! Next chapter is written, it's just waiting to be read over a few hundred more times, accepted as half decent at least, and then posted. Sigh! I'm glad I'm at the end of this. I need a new story. Thank you for reviewing! aw, you've been so supportive of me. It's nice to have support from a total stranger when your best friends give up reading what you post cough! cough! Marakins!. Yeah, I'm happy I didn't put in horrible cliches, but I warn you they may come later. Sorry. couldn't help it.**

**movieluver: grins Did I get ya with the whole Ardeth dying thing? To tell you the truth, I didn't think they were gonna get together after that, either. grins again Thank you for reviewing and complimenting me and stuff. grins again, with face falling off from too much grinning**

**blackmagic111090: Hmm, people are liking how Ardeth reacted. I did something right! Thankies for reviewing. Glad you like the story.**

**immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: No, not unexpected reaction, but hopefully not a cliche reaction. Update coming right up. grins Do I grin too much?**


	7. And Finally, The Smoosh!

**You may not like this chapter because it focuses on Beth, my OC and Ardeth. If that is so, then I apologise for not keeping the Ardeth fangirl in me properly restrained. grins This is just for all those who wanted Beth and Ardeth to get together. Insert your own name wherever it says 'Beth'. I know I do.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Rick, Jonathon, Alex, Eve or Ardeth, though chance would be a fine thing. They belong to Stephen Sommers, the lucky bastard! Oh, and that other guy that wrote the films too. Man, he must get annoyed that no one remembers his name.**

**Warning: Ardeth Bay and OC making out. I apologise now for the utter predictability of it all (is that a word?)

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Two months had passed since the incident at Nak Tahn. Beth had decided it was best to part ways with her brother for a short time while she organised her affairs back home in the USA. Now she was sat in a small, orderly office just two blocks away from where she had been based with Jimmy. Her desk was stacked high with papers, either from recent cases she had been asked to pursue or with legal documents concerning her responsibility for the office she and Jimmy shared. As Jimmy was 'missing in action' it was now up to Beth to handle the rent, a responsibility that was taking up all of her pay checks. She could practically hear Jimmy laughing at her predicament, and it made her angry, unreasonable and unsociable. Things weren't going well.

"So, I'm not supposed to be here?" Beth yelled at the ceiling. Neighbours had noticed she was doing this a lot recently. "I get that, okay? But I didn't ask to be brought back, so cut me some freakin' slack already!" Nothing happened, and Beth was left to sit at her desk and sigh away the hours. She needed to get out of the office, but she was afraid of more fieldwork. The memory of Ardeth storming off into the desert was nagging at the back of her mind. She was afraid of who she would lose this time.

* * *

The bell on the front door rang and Beth heard footsteps in the hallway. _Great._ she thought, _Another infuriating member of the public come to demand my services for a menial price._ She shuffled some papers and plastered on her best just-for-the-paying-customer-smile. A figure appeared in the doorway and her smile dropped. "Ar... Ardeth?" she stammered. No one had heard from him for months.

"Hello Beth." he drawled. He crossed the room in two swift strides and stood with his face just inches away from Beth's. Her heart practically stopped.

"Well, I never got the chance to express my happiness at your being alive." she whispered. Her voice didn't seem to want to work all of a sudden.

Ardeth simply smiled. "You know, I thought about many things after I was brought back. They were mainly selfish thoughts about being dragged out of eternal bliss and into this world again." His hot breath caressed Beth's cheek like the desert air, sending a wave of arousal through her (fully healed) body. She was sure he was doing this on purpose. "However, the main thing I found myself thinking about was you."

"Me?" she whimpered.

"Yes. You, Beth. Because you're intoxicating. And distracting. And you're going to be severely disliked by the other Medjai chiefs."

"Why?"

"Because they generally don't like it when their leader falls in love with a woman. They usually think of her as a time bomb, waiting to explode and take their leader from them."

Beth was shocked. "When their leader f...falls in...love with a...a woman?" she stammered, contemplating all possible meaning of that sentence in mere seconds.

Ardeth smiled even more, pure affection etched into his dark, brooding features. He reached up and brushed a golden lock of hair from Beth's face and then leaned in closer to whisper in her ear, "Will you have me Beth? Because I think I might die of I don't have you." Beth's knees gave way completely as lust and joy completely took over her body, leaving her clinging onto Ardeth just to stay upright. She stared straight up into the darkest, most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, and she could feel herself drowning in them, not wanting to be saved. Ardeth was here, alive, and begging her to make love to him, and she could hardly take it all in.

She opened her mouth to tell Ardeth that she was his eternally, but her words were forced back down her throat as Ardeth pressed his lips to hers, kissing her so intensely that the room began to spin. She melted into him, surrendering to his kiss and moaning with desire as his tongue teased her mouth, exploring, caressing, playing. He pulled away and Beth let out a small sound of protest, but she was silenced when he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the sofa. As he plonked her down, she sighed with happiness, imagining the things they would do together. She couldn't have dreamed of a better ending.

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**And so it ends! Sigh! It's finished (whoo-hoo!). This was my baby. Excuse me while I go and cry (from relief!). Thank you to all those who reviewed. I am sorry that the last few chapters became rushed and slightly crappy. That tends to happen when you write an epic (though this wasn't an epic, it was just more than three chapters long). Pablo and I therefore thank you, and bid you goodnight!**

**Man, I'm tired!**

**ZELINIA: Ah, your honesty is refreshing. Yes, sorry about the cliched ending. Like i said - the fangirl got out. Thank you for saying I'm a good writer. I have other things coming up, but they're both Harry Potter fics. I started writing one, and now I can't stop! I'll definately be looking out for your fic, as you so kindly read mine. It sounds good, what with the cool title i don't understand. Thankies for dropping by!**

**movieluver: Wait, you sound like me reading other people's stories, what with the OMGs and the not leaving till read the next bit of the story. That's so flattering! Thankies muchly (that's my new favourite phrase)! I've got stuff waiting to be posted anyway, so don't you worry. And if you're going to the British part of Europe (yes, like it or not we are part of europe) then don't. It's crappy. trust me - I've lived there all my life. Oh, and by the way - LUV YA TOO!**

**marakins: Thank you for dropping by at last! I was beginning to think you were bored with me. I'm glad you think Jonathon was in character. He was the hardest for me to write, so go figure. And yes, the mush! Personally I think you boo mush because you're jealous, but thankies for saying I did well in the writing of it! I only really wrote it the way other people do, but thankies all the same! Don't ever go away again! huggles and never lets go**

**Li'l- Red Bandana: Of course I remember you! Gosh, how could I forget? Did you know that Tarien's Medjai was the first fanfic i ever read. Congrats, by the way, on the ending, which i haven't quite gotten round to reviewing yet. grins I'm so glad you enjoyed this, and thankies for saying i write a good ending. I, myself, was disappointed with myself when i wrote it, because I had tried so hard not to surrender to the overwhelming urge to be predictable. Heck, i even killed Ardeth off for a while! Unfortunately, I brought him back in a cheesy resurrection scolds self. But you enjoyed it, and so did others, so I can at least be happy with that. Thank you so much for dropping by and taking the time to read this though!**


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